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Grantee
Union des Assurances du Burkina Vie (UAB) is a well-established life insurance company (33% life market share; 3rd largest insurer in Burkina of 8) with substantial experience in microinsurance. The Cauri d´or – targeting informal workers and offering a life microinsurance product - was pilot tested since 2003. The insurer´s key motivation is help poor families to sustain microenterprise activities after death of the breadwinner by providing his/her relatives with capital during the transition.
Consortium members:
FERLO SA: FERLO SA is a private information technology provider based in Senegal, licensed by the BCEAO Central Bank of West African states for electronic money transfers, with a subsidiary in Burkina and specialised in managing electronic payment and e-business. The company has worked with the microfinance sector in Senegal and developed customized smart card solutions for money transfer.
Project Summary
- Project name: Cauri d´or - Automating daily collection of microinsurance premiums
- Project start date: September 2008
- Duration: 3 years
- Country: Burkina Faso
Beneficiaries
Expected target groups: Micro-entrepreneurs from local markets
Expected outreach: 200 000 clients
Project Description
UAB seeks to roll out its life microinsurance product launched in 2003 (a promising experience with 15,000 clients) on a large scale with the use of new technologies. The product Cauri d´or targets informal sector entrepreneurs, such as women and men selling goods at a market stall, mostly in urban area. It is based on a contractual savings scheme and includes life and disability coverage. Clients´ contributions are collected every day (as low as 150 francs CFA or 0.35 USD per day). Terms vary from 1 month to 5 years and insurance premiums are low – 100 francs CFA per month. The benefit is twice the value of the contracted capital (with a cap of 200,000 francs CFA for both life and disability). UAB faces, as a main challenge, the security and high costs of manual daily collections. The use of new technologies (equipping clients with smart cards and collectors with computer terminals) should improve the administration of the product, overcome these challenges and help UAB expand its operations country wide.
Learning Agenda
- How do clients benefit from a flexible product? To what extent does the product enable the poor to manage risks and build assets?
- To what extent do clients understand their insurance benefits if the product is bundled with daily savings?
- How can insurers build trust among low-income people? Do smart cards help?
- What is the added value of education?
- What is the added value of technology to increase outreach and efficiency (administration and productivity on the back end, fraud detection)?
More information on the project
Website of the grantee:
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